Tucked along an alley off Meguro Ginza shopping street, this spot delivers exactly what its noren shop curtain promises: handmade noodles. Stroll along the lively Nakameguro street, a local favorite, and soak up the neighborhood’s atmosphere. In spring, the Meguro River is lined with cherry blossoms, while in August the Nakameguro Summer Festival marks the season.

The chef displays his originality in each bowl as he pursues a unique interpretation of ramen. Broths of clam, spiny lobster, free-range chicken and beef combine to create a soup of satisfying depth. Paste of porcini mushrooms and truffles switches up the flavour of soy-sauce ramen. Salt ramen is infused with yuzu flavoured butter to impart a creamy fragrance. ‘Iruca’ comes from the Japanese for ‘dolphin’, a symbol of peace and a message of friendship to spread across the oceans.

Located in Ikebukuro, one of Tokyo’s busiest neighborhoods, Japanese Ramen Gokan draws ramen lovers with its signature salt ramen. One theory about the name Ikebukuro is that there was once a pond (ike) here shaped like a bag (fukuro). At the station, a statue of an owl — also called fukuro in Japanese — known as Ike-Fukuro serves as a local landmark. Ikebukuro Station is a major terminal where multiple lines converge and the surrounding district bustles with people from all walks of life.

The owner-chef was born and raised in the Goryokaku district of Hakodate. He pours his heart and soul into salt-based ramen, a Hakodate favourite he has loved since childhood. The kombu kelp and dried scallop adductor muscles used in the salt sauce, as well as the wheat used for the house-made noodles, are all sourced from Hokkaido to convey the flavours of his hometown. The clear soup has a light seafood flavour. A popular topping here is gagome kombu, a speciality of Hakodate.

The husband boils the noodles; the wife garnishes them with spring onion and fermented bamboo shoots. Between them, they bring alpha and omega together to complete each bowl of ramen. Flavours are based on soy sauce, salt and dried sardines. To bring out the aroma, pure rice sake is added to chicken or seafood dashi soup stock. Several types of fragrant oil are used, deepening the flavour experience.